Ultimate Spider-Man

All three major consoles have seen the release of Ultimate
Spider-Man, the latest comic-to-game adaptation from Treyarch.Not wanting to leave the GameCube’s portable
little brother out, Treyarch has also cooked up a version for the feisty little
double-screen machine, and they’ve put its unique abilities to good use.Spider-Man 2 launched with the DS last year,
and while it was a competent tech demo for the system it lacked a certain
tightness and polish, and the DS functionality felt a bit forced.

Ultimate
Spider-Man for the DS fixes a lot of the earlier
bugs and deepens the gameplay experience with the addition of another playable
character.Just like the console
versions, Ultimate
Spider-Man DS follows the story crafted by Mark Bagley and Brian
Michael Bendis, who are the writers of the monthly comic.Thus, the plot is highly professional and is
recreated almost word for word from the bigger console releases.An incredible amount of quality spoken
dialogue and stylized comic panels lays out the narrative, making the DS
version all the more faithful.

Aside from
the story, though, there aren’t a whole lot of similarities.The actual gameplay is presented in a 2
and1/2 dimension perspective; 3D environments and characters, but played in a
side-scrolling fashion.It’s almost
exactly the same as the play mechanic used in Viewtiful Joe, and it works just
as well here.The graphics strive to
recreate the pen and ink look of the console versions, but they falls just short
of really accomplishing it.Still, the
artists came pretty close by making everything bright and loud, and the
comic-panel cutscenses make up the difference.

Then again,
you probably won’t have a chance to stop and look at the scenery with all of
the hectic action going on.Ultimate
Spider-Man is
split between Spider Man and Venom, with plenty of variety sprinkled
throughout. The Spidey missions focus heavily on rescuing civilians in need,
and timing who to save first can be tricky.Between beating up thugs, disarming bombs and hefting cars off of pinned
innocents, it’s always a juggling act with your friendly neighborhood arachnid.

The
webhead’s controls are focused primarily on the D-pad, face buttons and
shoulder triggers.Occasionally you’ll
have to stroke the touch screen to push or lift an object, which keeps you
thinking in the thick of things, but Spider Man’s levels are pretty traditional
platformer.

Venom’s
stages are where things start to change.He still moves with the digital pad, but everything else save for
jumping is controlled with the touch screen.Tapping items will make Venom’s tentacles lash out and grab them, and
you can also perform a wall-zip by stroking to a nearby surface.Just like in the console ports, the only way
to replenish health is by dragging hapless enemies into the symbiote and
leeching them dry of life, which is also a point and drag affair.

This
control setup is very innovative, but a little too ambitious for its own
good.The touch attacks are only as fast
as your hand reflexes, so when you’re surrounded by thugs the situation can
quickly become a meat grinder.Boss
battles are especially frustrating with Venom; I found myself switching over to
conventional controls and button mashing my way through most of the fights.The whole concept of attacking anything with
the tentacles just by touching it is certainly creative, but it could’ve used
more than a bit of tightening.

If you can
get past some of the irritating play mechanics, Ultimate
Spider-Man is an
entertaining experience with a competent story.Like its big brothers on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube, it’s all too short
and gives you that hanging feeling once you’ve finished it.The multiplayer versus mode is only a passing
distraction, as it takes two cartridges to play and it isn’t very balanced
anyway.I’d give this one a rent, and
hope for a sequel with a tad more substance.Who knows?In true comic book
fashion, the story leaves plenty of openings for next time.

The DS version of Ultimate Spider-Man follows the plot to the letter and serves up its own unique style of gameplay, but the controls need some polish. Like the console releases it has a short lifespan and little to no replay value afterwards, but itâ€™s still plenty of hectic fun while it lasts.

Rating: 8.2 Good

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company for review.

About Author

Sean Colleli has been gaming off and on since he was about two, although there have been considerable gaps in the time since. He cut his gaming teeth on the “one stick, one button” pad of the Atari 800, taking it to the pirates in Star Raiders before space shooter games were cool. Sean’s Doom addiction came around the same time as fourth grade, but scared him too much to become a serious player until at least sixth grade. It was then that GoldenEye 007 and the N64 swept him off his feet, and he’s been hardcore ever since.

Currently Sean enjoys a good shooter, but is far more interested in solid adventure titles like The Legend of Zelda or the beautiful Prince of Persia trilogy, and he holds the Metroid series as a personal favorite. Sean prefers deep, profound characters like Deus Ex’s JC Denton, or ones that break clichés like Samus Aran, over one dimensional heroes such as the vacuous Master Chief. Sean will game on any platform but he has a fondness for Nintendo, Sega and their franchises. He has also become a portable buff in recent years. Sean’s other hobbies include classic science fiction such as Asimov and P.K. Dick, and Sean regularly writes down his own fiction and aimless ramblings. He practices Aikido and has a BA in English from the Ohio State University. He is in his mid twenties. View Profile